Many times I am being
asked why the hell I decided to move to such a crazy and often
times depressing place such as Palestine and Israel and to be honest
I asked myself the same question numerous times. Obviously there are
quite a few factors determining the answer, one of which is
definitely food. And when I say food, I mean chickpeas. Ok, not only
chickpeas, but to a great extent, yes. Chickpeas can be turned among other things into Falafel and of course into Hummus.

Hummus ice cream in Tel Aviv, found and documented by Shooki Galili

Hummus means chickpeas in Arabic and refers to the very tasty, and by
the way, extremely healthy dish most commonly prepared out of
cooked and mashed chickpeas blended with tahini (a paste made out of sesame
seeds), olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic.

There are endless variations of Hummus, it is eaten by
itself with pita bread, in combination with Foul (cooked and mashed
fava beans), as a dip, a side dish and as I have recently learned
even in the form of ice cream!

The exact origin of the dish is
unknown, its first documented consumption dates back to the times of
the crusaders, but some argue it was already mentioned in the Old
Testament. Either way, Hummus is an integral part of both the
Palestinian and the Israeli cuisine, but can be found all over the Levant and beyond.

Both before and after the foundation of the state,
Israel has made a big effort to distance itself from the local
Palestinian culture, the exceptions being swear words (yes, Israelis adopted
most of the Arabic curses and fitted them into the newly developing
Hebrew language, which basically means, pronouncing them in a Hebrew way) and
food, which was simply too delicious to be turned down. Falafel and
Hummus were thus soon declared as the Israeli national dishes, which in
turn angered most of the Arab states.

Lebanon in particular took
this Israeli sentiment as a national offense and started what has
now become known as the Hummus War. The war was first launched in 2008 by
the Association of Lebanese Industrialists who claimed that Israel
had “usurped several Lebanese and Oriental dishes” and thus
petitioned the Lebanese Ministry of Economy and Trade to request
protected status from the European Commission for Hummus as a
uniquely Lebanese food. Until
today the Association has not achieved its goal, but is reportedly
still busy preparing documents and proof to support its claim.

The largest Hummus in world history, Lebanon 2010

One
victory was however captured in May 2010, when 300 Lebanese chefs
mashed 10 tons of chickpeas and prepared 10,452 kilograms of Hummus,
thus breaking the Guiness World Record set by 50 chefs from the
Palestinian village of Abu Gosh, outside of Jerusalem, who had cooked
4,087 kilograms of the dish a few months earlier. Notwithstanding the fact that the chefs of Abu Gosh were Palestinian, the Guiness Record for Hummus being accorded to Israel (!) was simply too much to bear for the proud Lebanese.

Another less
verified political hummus tale says that in 2009, Syrian president Assad
attempted to lure then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into
negotiations about an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan. The tale
continues that, as a sign of trust, Olmert accepted the jar without
even subjecting it to security checks. Yet, according to the Israeli
newspaper Yediot Ahronot the hummus deal concealed the true
intentions of both rulers: Assad sent Hummus, but secretly built a
nuclear facility in northern Syria; Olmert ate the Hummus, but
secretly gave instructions to attack the facility. The strike was
carried out a short time after.

Many would probably argue that basically everything could serve as a battleground for the many conflicts in
the Middle East, yet Hummus may also carry a great potential for
establishing peace in the region, as the recent documentary by
Australian filmmaker Trevor Grahm "Make Hummus Not War" suggests. Hummus by now constitutes an integral and beloved ingerdient of Levantine culture in general and, as the author of the unique Hummus blog Shooki Galili stated, claiming it "is like claiming for the rights to bread or wine. [...] Hummus is a
centuries old Arab dish — nobody owns it, it belongs to the region".